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> Do you get any influence in what area you will be stationed in?

I think the recruiter will ask you for some preferences, and ask you to rank them in order of preference.
I'm pretty sure this is a meaningless exercise to make you feel better. The USMC will send you where they need you - period.

> What physical condition should I be in by the time I graduate?

Be able to run (RUN - not walk) three miles before you get on the bus.
If you can RUN three miles in ~30 minutes (without stopping to walk) you should be ok.
Be able to perform several dead-hang pull-ups. More than one.

Exercise your Google-Fu and find out what the required number of sit-ups/crunches is for your age bracket, and be able to do like 75% of a perfect score before you get on the bus.

Technically, if you are hitting the DEP mandatory minimums, you can get on the bus.
But you will be in for a world of hurt if your personal best is just the mandatory minimums.

The Drill Instructors have been making young people stronger for a long, long time.
You don't have to be a athletic stud, they will upgrade you from below average to above average by the time you graduate.

But if you are a poor performer, they will exercise the ever loving shit out of you to improve your performance.
Exceptionally poor performers will be removed from the training cycle and moved into a Physical Conditioning Platoon.
You don't want to go there if you can avoid it.

> How can I get a head start before I graduate?

Finish your Eagle Scout if you are involved with Scouting.
Eagle Scouts are automatically promoted from E-1 to E-2 at end of boot camp.

If you enjoy reading, you might try this series:

WEB Griffin: The Corps

It's a history-based series of fiction books that will expose you to USMC history starting with pre-WW2 through Korea.
The USMC is BIG on knowing our history.
Keep in mind, that is a FICTION series. Try not to imagine yourself as a super spy guy, ok?

Watch This HBO Series:

HBO: Generation Kill

That is another FICTIONAL series, based on the real life experiences of the author of this book:

Nate Fick: One Bullet Away

Those will expose you to the modern USMC, and help you understand what you are thinking of becoming a part of.

Those should help you get your mind in the right alignment.
Don't forget to get your body into the right condition as well. Get off the sofa and RUN.
Join the Track Team.
Running is the usual problem area for most recruits, in part because running is part mental as well as physical.
The more you run, the more you can get the mental components of running in alignment.


> Should I leave my individuality at the door when I join?

For the 3 months or so you are in Boot Camp? Yes. The Drill Instructors are going to rip it out of your chest.
You will be torn down to base emotions and capabilities, and rebuilt as a Marine.
It sounds cheezy. It sounds like a romantic sales pitch. But there is real, honest truth to that statement.

After Boot Camp, when you go to MCT it will kind of be like going far far away to a University.
Nobody knows who you were.
Nobody has any idea what you were like before.
You can choose to be the kind of Marine you want to be.
You'll never really forget who you were. Some of your old habits or characteristics will always be with you.

But you'll have the opportunity to develop a new individuality that has a strong respect for the greater collective, this new extension of yourself.


> Stupid question but, what do you do with your phone? Do you leave it? Do they take it? (Not that I really care I'm just curious.)

I believe you can take it with you, and leave it in storage while you are in Boot Camp.
You WILL NOT have access to the phone while you are in Boot Camp. It won't be in your foot locker. It will be in a storage facility that you won't have access to.

What you should bring depends on how far away you are, and if you need an overnight bag.

In a nutshell, bring as little as possible.

Empty your wallet down to the bare essentials:

Drivers License or Photo ID.
Maybe $20 in cash plus maybe $2 in quarters.

From the moment you climb on the bus, the USMC is supposed to feed you and take care of you until the moment you either are sent home as a washout, or until the day you EAS.
You should not need to feed yourself, but sometimes busses break down or what should be a 15 minute stop in Jerkwater, Tennessee turns into a 3 hour fiasco trying to find a replacement driver or a mechanic.

Your recruiter should talk to you about running shoes.
Apparently there is a specific list of makes & models of running shoes you are allowed to bring.
Don't fuck that up. Buy the right stuff, and make damned sure they fit PERFECTLY.

Somewhere in your town or in the big town close to you is a boutique running specialty store.
Go there. Buy them from them. Get them to size you and check your running stride.

Shin Splints and knee / ankle injuries are a MAJOR CONCERN in boot camp, and a whole lot of the risk of those injuries can be mitigated with damned good shoes & orthotic inserts.
If they suggest an insert of some kind, make damned sure you fasten it into the shoe do it DOES NOT fall out before you get on the bus.

If you've never heard of shin splints before, do yourself a favor and read a wikipedia or WebMD article on them. That's serious business to you now.

You won't see the clothes you wear to Boot Camp for 3 months, other than those running shoes. So don't wear anything fancy, special or offensive.

I suppose that depends on when you "don't make it."

If you drop out of OCS, or get injured at PLC/OCS, I'm not sure how willing they are to take a chance on you again, but they might if it's medical.

If you decide the USMC isn't for you, or fail out of school, you have to pay the gov't for the loans. I'm pretty sure they make this very clear when you accept your NROTC scholarship. In fact, I'm extremely sure you have to sign an agreement to pay the loans back, barring any extraneous circumstances.

And I really would like to think that NROTC scholarships are rare and exclusive enough that they are not handed out like candy.

Are you interested in Air, Ground or Law?
Please do yourself a favor and read One Bullet Away.

Get him small things that can mildly improve life in the field. Body Glide - helps with chaffing, good for the feet in boots). NUUN He can put this in his water bottle (?) and rehydrate better. Tactical Carabiner. Really good socks - not sure if coyote green or brown is right, someone here will know. He won't have the time or space for many fun activities so comfort in the field will be a priority. A gift box of comfort would be nice IMO.

The book that changed my life and thought processes the most was and is Wild at Heart by John Eldredge.

https://www.amazon.com/Wild-Heart-Revised-Updated-Discovering/dp/1400200393/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539659903&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_QL65&keywords=wild+at+heart+john+eldredge&dpPl=1&dpID=41Jvn2qswGL&ref=plSrch

I don’t want to shoot the “God gun” at you guys, but it’s the best I’ve got. Even if only a portion of what Eldredge is proposing is true or correct, it’s revolutionary in how you process your life and the events in it, and what’s going on in this world.

The other book is Rangers in the Gap: Act with Courage, Never Surrender by Richard Drebert. This is about Dave Eubank (former Ranger and SF officer) and his Free Burma Rangers.

https://www.amazon.com/Rangers-Gap-Courage-Never-Surrender/dp/1938478312

You can clean a flag by hand or in the wash (gentle). Keep in mind that once you put it through the wash, if the stains don't come out, they'll probably be permanent if they weren't before. If you go that route, you'd probably want to pretreat the stains with some Carbona or somesuch thing by hand anyway.

You could also take it to a respectable dry cleaners, especially if you know what the stains are from so that they can specially treat them.

As for folding, it'll help it you have someone else to assist you. I'd suggest folding it into a proper triangle. If you want to do extra, you could put it in a flag case of some kind as well. Of course, folding the flag up, you might find that all the stains are hidden.

And of course, if you have a local VFW, those guys can probably help you with all this as well.

If you want to clarify between First and Second Lieutenant shorthand, you can write 1Lt and 2Lt. But Lt should be fine for both.

If you want a good series about "future Marines" for inspiration, I'd recommend "The Empire's Corps." Don't need to read the entire series, first book is fine. The author did a good job with ranks, jargon and 'espirit de corps'. He made me a believable representation of a Marine Corps hundreds of years from now. The books are pretty quick reads. I got the Audible versions and enjoyed them.

https://www.amazon.com/Empires-Corps-Christopher-Nuttall-ebook/dp/B008RX4K2G

To hit a few that haven’t been mentioned:

Colder than Hell is a pretty good autobiography about Korea.

Semper Fi Vietnam gives a pretty good overview of our actions Vietnam. Made me realize how heavy some of the fighting was, and how inaccurate the popular conception of the war was.

No True Glory and The Strongest Tribe are both pretty good accounts of Iraq. The former mostly deals with Fallujah and the latter with the Awakening.

Just read 'On Desperate Ground' 2 weeks ago. About the USMC defense of North Korea. Not sure if you read this yet, but it's pretty good. The Corps at this point had faced almost every enemy and every terrain. Except extreme cold and 250,000 Chinese. At the 'Frozen Chosin', they got introduced to both. They did amazing, but it was too mucb for them. check it out of you get a chance. great book.

To swim better, easier, and longer.

You will need to train up to the suggestion below, start with something like Starting Strength and then Corps Strength. Do a Higdon running plan.

Seriously, don't do this until you can do 300 PFT and have a solid strength/cardio base, do it with a friend.

I suggest reading One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer; it's an autobiography that gives a lot of insight into the sort of path you want to take, as well as the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions (the author is the Lt. Fick depicted in Generation Kill). Someone who is actually in the military would be able to better vouch for the accuracy of the book, but my impression is that it's a pretty solid account.

There's a a documentary about it on Amazon prime. https://www.amazon.com/Task-Force-Faith-Regimental-Combat/dp/B075JQ6R3Y

TF Faith performed brilliantly, especially considering the odds against it, and it was overlooked for decades.

Obon in the 80s was a lot of fun. The back streets were sort of like a friendly Halloween.

Dead Marines from WWII used to check into a gate on Hansen, and a few places on Kadena had ghost stories.

I read this and the followup and it was kind of fun. https://www.amazon.com/Okinawa-Kwaidan-Japanese-Stories-Hauntings-ebook/dp/B00B0XBR9O/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=gohsts+okinawa&qid=1570797425&s=books&sr=1-3-spell

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However, I was at the hotel construction site everyone talks about online, after it was newly abandoned. It was never haunted. It was a makeout and drinking spot. The military bosses placed it off limits because it turned into a gay cruising spot. The ghost stories must have come later.

Best story from that area. Back then the Japs would take your car if they caught you drunk driving, but the mil gave you a slap on the wrist. Some of us were up there drinking and watching the lights. Okinawan couple in a car were having sex and hit the parking brake somehow. Car went off the edge of the lot and slid downhill into the trees. They weren't hurt so it was funny.

Check out the Commandant's Reading list recommendations for Officer Candidates. I'd add One Bullet Away and What it's Like to go to War to that list as well.

How is your general knowledge? Do you know all of your Troop Leading Steps, Leadership Traits, General Orders, and Operational Order sub-paragraphs?

Here we go. I re-drew it freehand and made a few minor adjustments to make it more suitable for apparel printing. Link is for a shirt, but if you want a long sleeve, tank top or whatever just search the title in the amazon search bar and they should come right up.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QWHMCWK

One Bullet Away: The Making of a Marine Officer by Nathaniel Fick

Bro,
I don't know much but I know this.

Leadership is service.

It's not about you.

Real leadership looks like this:

• protecting your guys from bullshit from above
  
• looking out for their welfare and checking in on them
  
• holding them to a high standard and yourself an even higher one
  
• balancing men vs mission aggression vs caution
  
• knowing your shit so well you cannot fuck up in any circumstance
  
• knowing their shit so well they cannot fuck up
  
  Read this book
  
  http://www.amazon.com/One-Bullet-Away-Making-Officer/dp/0618773436